by Linda Verji
From the looks of it, it wasn’t just her fashion style and body that had changed. Her personality had changed too. Thirteen years ago, she wouldn’t have been able to stand up to a bully like Michael Walcott, but today she’d been all glares and jibes. Still, her interaction with Michael had left Lucas more worried than proud. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Jasmine’s new boldness. He liked it. However, he didn’t like that it was directed at Michael or that she and the man seemed to have a past.
Lucas had read up on Michael, and what he’d read had left him even more interested in making sure that York Emerson’s death was really a suicide. Michael had a history with law enforcement – and it wasn’t a good history. Sure, the man was now posing as the law-abiding, chairman of Walcott Management. However, in his heyday, he was known for his irrational temper and shady shenanigans.
In the past, Michael been arrested a couple of times for assault but he’d never been indicted. The victims and witnesses always changed their stories or disappeared. Worse, the cops had suspected him of being a drug supplier for most of the nightclubs in Chancery. Though there were numerous rumors on the street and Michael associated closely with known dealers, they’d never been able to get any proof.
About fifteen years ago, he’d gone straight, but Lucas didn’t believe that he’d completely changed. Tigers can’t change their stripes.
“How do you and Michael Walcott know each other?” Lucas asked the still enraged Jasmine.
“You’re wasting time with these questions,” Jasmine scolded. She pointed towards the double-doors where Michael and his son were now walking out from. “Go get him.”
Lucas didn’t have to answer. Shane did. “We can’t force him to answer our questions.
“Why not?” Jasmine’s irate gaze shifted between the two men. “You’re detectives.”
Ignoring her question, Lucas asked, “Were you trying to investigate on your own?”
“Good guess, Genius!” she retorted sarcastically.
“Excuse me,” August Wells, who Lucas had even forgotten existed, cut in. Though August was smiling, his eyes were cold as he said, “As interesting as this… whatever you lot have going on here is, I have things to do. Do you still have questions or can I leave?”
Lucas turned to the man. “We still have questions.”
To an untrained eye, the bespectacled man looked absolutely normal. But there was something about the ice in his eyes as he smiled that pricked Lucas’s instincts. Sure, he was dressed in a suit, but something about his stiff soldier-like posture left Lucas feeling like there was more to the man than just being Michael Walcott’s question-answerer.
“This way then!” August gestured towards the elevators then started walking.
Lucas and Shane followed after him, but when Jasmine started walking too, Lucas cut right in front of her, blocking her path. “Not you.”
“What!” Jasmine took a step back and nervousness flickered in her gaze as if she was afraid to be too close to him. “Why not?”
“We’re the detectives,” Lucas informed her. “Not you.”
“I’m a concerned civilian.”
“And… the concerned civilian will now go home and leave the investigating to the cops.” Lucas pointed to the exit. “Go.”
“No, I was here first.” Jasmine protested as her fist curled at the side of her body. “That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair.” Lucas turned and over his shoulder, he threw, “Bye Jasmine.”
Without waiting to see if she’d follow his instructions, Lucas headed to the elevators. August held the doors for him. Once Lucas was in, he turned to see Jasmine still glowering at him but thankfully not following. The doors closed, trapping the three men in the metallic cage. The trip up was unexpectedly silent. Most people got awkward in the presence of cops and thus tried to fill the awkwardness with empty talk. August wasn’t one of those people. He seemed completely at ease as he stood a step in front of the detectives.
When the doors opened on the fourth floor, he even gave them a smile. “This way.”
He led them down a long hallway then opened one of the numerous doors along it, and they stepped into a meeting room. The room was spacious enough to hold three rectangular tables arranged in a U with several seats. It was also equipped with projection equipment and a dry erase board.
“Have a seat.” August pointed to the seats on the right side table. Once the detectives sat down, he picked up a phone at the corner of the room. “Kendra, please bring some refreshment to Boardroom Two. We have two guests.” With another one of those oddly cold smiles, he circled the arranged tables to sit at the one directly across the two detectives. “Now, what were those questions?”
Lucas said, “Actually it’s more like a favor rather than a question.”
“Please!” August gestured with his hand as if to tell him to ask away.
“We’d like to see the CCTV footage for the day that York Emerson died.”
“I thought you’d ask for something big.” August laughed but strangely enough only his mouth moved. It was weird as fuck. He continued, “Believe me I want to give it to you. I would love to give it to you. But as I told Detective Barnaby, we lost it.”
Lucas’s eyebrows shot up as did Shane’s. Shane asked, “You lost it?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” August winced as if he was personally hurt by that loss. “Our equipment seemed to have malfunctioned on that day and everything got wiped out. I’ve talked to our engineers to find something… anything the police can use, but up to now they haven’t been successful.”
“I bet!” Lucas snorted under his breath. Even though August was doing his best to sound sincere, everything in Lucas told him that the whole story was a pile of horse-shit.
Shane seemed to be buying it because he said, “That’s unfortunate. Can we at least talk to the person in charge of security that night? He might know something.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” August winced again. “He was so traumatized by finding York’s body that we had to give him a vacation. Some people can’t handle this kind of thing.”
Lucas almost burst into laughter. Did this man actually think they believed him? Before he could call him out, the door swung inwards and a brunette walked in. Though both detectives refused refreshments, somehow August got them to take a glass of juice each.
Once the lady was gone, Lucas asked, “Can we have the address of that guy?”
“Who? Our head of security?” When Lucas nodded curtly, August said, “Sure, but it won’t help you. At least not for the next month or so. I’m told that after the trauma he went through, he wanted to get out of town. I believe he’s in Bahamas right now… or was it Seychelles?” August stared thoughtfully up into the ceiling as if trying to remember.
This time Lucas couldn’t hide his snort. “How convenient!”
The look that August shot him was so cold Lucas was surprised he didn’t turn into a pillar of ice.
“What about the entry logs?” Shane asked. “You must have kept a record of when York entered the building and who he came to see.”
“We did, but-” August winced again. Lucas was so tired of those winces that he almost leapt across the space between them to grab the man’s collar.
“But?” Shane prodded.
“But there was an accident,” August informed them. “We still have the entry logs for regular employees who swiped their card, but the visitors log was accidentally deleted.”
This time even Shane couldn’t buy it. The two detectives traded looks of ‘is he serious?’.
August, it seemed, was completely serious because he went on, “It was pure carelessness, and I can’t even believe it happened. We’ve already fired the culprit?”
“Why am I not surprised?’ Lucas retorted sarcastically. “Do you have the name of this culprit?”
Lucas half expected the man to claim that he didn’t know the culprit’s name or their employment records had magically disappeared, but
August surprised him by nodding. “Sure. Her name is Candace Shaw. I’ll call the front desk and tell them to give you her address when you leave.”
“We’d appreciate that,” Shane said.
“Mr. Walcott has an important meeting in about an hour and I need to catch up.” August stood. “If you don’t have any more questions…”
Lucas had many, many more questions, but the man’s blank expression left no doubt that he wouldn’t get any real answers. There was no point in staying here any longer. Lucas rose. “No, we don’t have any more questions.”
“We don’t?” Shane, who was still seated, looked surprised.
“No, we don’t.” Lucas started for the door.
“Why did we just leave?” Shane asked as they headed for the elevators. “Didn’t you realize that he was just bullshitting us? That there’s more to this story?”
“Of course I clocked that, but we weren’t going to get anything from August Wells.”
“We could have pushed harder.”
“Did you see his eyes?” Lucas shook his head and sighed. “You can’t push a man like that. We’ll have to find someone else to answer our questions.”
“Someone like who?”
Lucas still needed to figure out the answer to that question. But now that he’d met Michael and his posse of liars, Lucas was even more certain that Jasmine was right. That there was something more than a suicide here.
Lucas expected to find Jasmine gone when he and Shane emerged from Walcott Towers. Imagine his surprise when he found the woman herself pacing in front of the building. It was quite obvious that she was waiting for him.
“Look who it is.” Shane instantly noticed her and started towards her.
“Wait for me in the car.” Lucas grabbed the back of his partner’s navy t-shirt to halt his movement. “I’ll deal with this.”
“I can deal with it too.” Smiling, Shane watched Jasmine who was now coming towards them. “I bet I can deal with her better than you.”
“Wait for me in the car,” Lucas growled.
“Okay. Okay. Down dog!” Shane shook his head disapprovingly as he untangled his shirt from Lucas’s hold. His eyes glinting with amusement, he teased, “Someone would think you two dated or something.”
“Go away,” Lucas ordered.
With a laugh, Shane moved away. It was just in time too because seconds later, Jasmine came to a stop in front of Lucas.
“So?” She tilted her head to watch him. “What did they say?”
“Didn’t I tell you to go home?”
Jasmine guffawed. “Did you expect me to?”
“Yes!” The answer came without thought. The Jasmine that was in Lucas’s memory was obedient to the point of irritation. She’d always done what he, or anyone else for that matter, had asked her. Defiance had never been part of her DNA.
It was almost as if she could read his mind because her gaze hardened. “I don’t do that anymore.”
“You don’t do that anymore?” He raised his eyebrows. “Is that your way of saying you remember me now?”
Jasmine ignored his questions. “So what did you learn in there? Did they tell you anything about York?”
“That’s classified information,” Lucas offered cryptically. “We’ll handle it from here.”
“You’ll handle it?” She gave him a lingering once-over from head to foot then back up to his head. “Can you handle it?”
“Of course.” He nodded. “Trust me.”
They were the wrong words to say because Jasmine’s eyes hardened again. “I don’t think so. Where’s the detective who was handling this case before?” She instantly changed her mind. “No, he was just as incompetent. How do I request for a new detective?”
Was she saying that he was incompetent? Lucas knew that he deserved the insult but it still sent hurt hurtling through him. He hadn’t been the most subservient kid when they were growing. In fact, everyone had assumed that he’d end up a guest of the state at some point, but he’d always thought that Jasmine thought differently. That she could see past the defiant mask he put on, into who he really was. Obviously he’d been wrong.
“Look, Shane and I will handle this,” he said, sounding angrier than he intended. “Go home.”
He started to turn, but Jasmine stopped him with, “Aren’t you going to apologize?”
“For what?” He turned to fully face her.
Her demeanor had changed, stiffened. “For what happened last night.”
He’d almost forgotten what happened last night. Fine, he hadn’t. How could he forget their first kiss in thirteen years? Of course he’d been wrong to initiate it after everything he’d done, but for some reason he didn’t feel like apologizing. He raised his eyebrows. “What happened last night?”
“So you’re just going to pretend not to remember?”
“I guess we both have memory problems now!” he retorted.
The look Jasmine gave him was so filled with hate and rage, Lucas took a startled step back. But it was her, “Asshole,” that shocked him. He’d never heard Jasmine swear. Not once. Before he could decide whether he liked it or not, she turned and started to walk away.
“Wait.” Without conscious thought, he started after her and grabbed her elbow. “Wait.”
“Don’t touch me!” There was so much venom in her voice that Lucas’s heart actually jerked and his breath caught in his throat. She forcefully pulled her arm from his grip. “Don’t ever touch me.”
He knew she was angry with him, but he didn’t know she was this angry. He knew he’d hurt her, but he didn’t know that he’d hurt her this much.
“Angel,” he murmured, unsure of what he wanted to say yet knowing that he needed to repair the hurt he’d caused. “I’m so sor-”
“And don’t call me that!” She cut him off. “My name is Jasmine Mitchell. Jasmine. Use it.”
“Ang… no, Jasmine,” he corrected himself. “I’m sorry about…. About everything… about the kiss last n-”
“No, let’s go with what you said. You don’t remember it, so I won’t remember it either. Good?” She didn’t wait for his answer. She answered herself. “Good.”
“Jaz, wait.” He stopped her before she could turn and leave. Rubbing the nape of his neck in frustration, he suggested, “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
“Talk about what?” She cocked her head as she glared at him.
Lucas wasn’t sure what he was going to say. All he knew was that he needed to say something to ease the hurt that still shone bright in her eyes. As much as he deserved her anger, he didn’t want her to be angry at him. Even though he still couldn’t tell her why he’d let her go, the least he could do was apologize for how he’d done it.
Jasmine, on the other hand, was obviously uninterested in what he had to say. She repeated, “Talk about what? The case or something else?”
Lucas said nothing, but she read his silence for its truth.
“If it’s not the case, then I don’t think so. You and I don’t need to talk about anything other than the case,” she said. “And since it’s obvious that you don’t want to tell me anything about the case, I’ll just call the station and find out for myself.” She started to walk but stopped and turned back to shoot him one last glare. “When I call the station, don’t answer the phone.”
CHAPTER 6
Right after Lucas and Jasmine parted, he headed to the Medical Examiner’s office.
Even as he took the stairs down to the basement, Jasmine’s face and the rage that had filled it flashed in his thoughts. In all his imagining, he’d never thought that she’d end up despising him this much. Though he knew that he deserved all her hatred, it still cut him to the quick because he still remembered how much she’d loved him. It really was true that the line between hate and love was ridiculously thin. It was too late to make up for what he’d done, but the least he could do was solve her case for her. Maybe then she wouldn’t hate him as much.
As if he wasn’t in a
bad enough mood, the frosty temperature that welcomed him into the medical examiner’s dungeon immediately set his teeth on edge. To make matters worse, the man lying face-up on one of the tables had been gutted from neck to groin, and all his organs were out on full display.
“Fuck!” Lucas grimaced at the grotesque sight.
“Don’t curse in my office, Gallo,” Rosa North, CHPD’s Chief Medical Examiner, scolded as she spun around in her swivel chair to face him.
The forty-something woman was a contradiction of femininity. Her features were too harsh to be called beautiful; her nose was too big, her jaw too angular, her lips too thin and the bob she’d cut her brown hair into too severe. Yet, somehow, she was riveting enough that one was compelled to look again.
“Then you shouldn’t have stiffs lying around everywhere,” Lucas retorted.
“This is a morgue.” Rosa’s brown eyes glinted with amusement. “What did you expect?”
“Eish!” Lucas avoided looking at the corpse as he strode to North’s side.
Even though his work involved a lot of unnecessary death, he’d never gotten used to the bodies. He only looked at the dead when he had to. He could never understand how Rosa could do this all day, every day. Heck! He’d caught the woman eating her lunch here several times without a care for the stiffs on the table next to her. Blegh!
“Come for some playtime?” Rosa’s eyebrows arched a notch and her lips tilted in an inviting smile. “I’ve got some free time if you’re looking.”
Coupled with her looks, Rosa’s current relationship status was equally as attractive. As a recently minted divorcée with no intention of getting into a serious relationship, she was the perfect sexual partner. She was experienced, uncomplicated, had no expectations beyond a good time in bed, and was super-skilled in the art of sex.
What more could a man with no intention of ever getting married ask for.
Lucas and Rosa had engaged in ‘extra-curricular activities’ a couple of times in the past. But the no-strings-attached relationship had grown old fast. Lucas hated to admit it, but the truth was that he liked having an emotional connection with his partners. When he was with Rosa, he’d felt lonelier. Sex without any strings-attached, he’d discovered, was mechanical – like eating for the sake of eating instead of savoring what was on your plate.